VCU competes in nationwide recycling competition

Although basketball season is in high gear, VCU is facing nation-wide competition in another arena.

Over the past three weeks and until April 2, VCU is competing against more than 600 other universities in RecycleMania, a nationwide college recycling competition.

The goal of RecycleMania is to foster increased awareness through friendly competition among 630 U.S. universities and colleges to determine who can make the greatest recycling strides during the event.

“Everybody wants bragging rights,” said Steve Heinitz, Recycling and Reuse Coordinator for VCU’s Department of Environmental Conservation.

RecycleMania awards schools for achievements in four categories: grand champion, per capita classic, waste minimization and the gorilla prize (for larger schools who have recycled the greatest tonnage). VCU has participated in the event since 2008 and has typically ranked about third in the state, according to Heinitz, just behind William & Mary and the University of Virginia.

Over the course of this 10-week event, VCU will be reaching out to students at basketball games, through documentary showings and by catching people “green-handed,” something students might see while walking across the Compass this week.

“We are going to look for people being good eco-stewards and reward them instantly,” said Elle Chang, a 2010 VCU graduate and Recycling/Sustainability Assistant for VCU’s Department of Environmental Conservation.

Prizes for those caught “green-handed” may include reusable coffee mugs and an invitation to tour the ACE Recycling Plant, a LEED certified building.

During week two of this year’s competition, VCU registered a 29 percent recycling rate, falling below its 33 percent rate during the same week last year, according to the RecycleMania website.

Heinitz’ long-term goal is aimed high. “My goal is to get us to 40 percent,” he said. “We’re always trying to do new things to get our rate higher.”

By working with different vendors and finding ways to recycle different things, the university has attempted to increase recycling rates.

“The thing that drives our recycling rate down is food waste because it is very heavy and unfortunately, when people go to the dining halls and various places to eat food, there is waste because of spoilage,” Heinitz said.

Food waste is being addressed by plans to acquire an anaerobic composting system within the next two years to process food and paper waste on campus.

Other new recycling initiatives on campus include the installation of 13 BigBelly solar compactors on the Monroe Park Campus and four on the medical campus.

These waste receptacles, with space for recyclables and trash, hold five times more garbage than a normal trash bin, don’t need to be serviced as often and automatically send a text message to maintenance staff when they are full.

These have been placed along highly visible walkways on both campuses.

“Our overall recycling rate is improving,” Heinitz said. “But for the RecycleMania competition we can’t include the two areas we’re improving in (the most).”

“I love the competitive spirit of it but to me the biggest value is the educational aspect of it. Every year we’re trying to take it a step further.”

To Heinitz, VCU’s biggest competitor is itself.

“It’s almost a competition amongst our selves because we’re always looking to outdo what we did last year and set the bar higher for ourselves.”